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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Monday, March 1, 2010

Hazmat crews respond to Utah IRS office

Leave us hope it is not a disgruntled Teabagger sympathizer who took the repugicans' message of anti-government hate to heart.

Hazardous materials crews and the FBI were on the scene Monday at the IRS building in Ogden, Utah, where two people were removed on stretchers and several others were undergoing decontamination showers.

The FBI released no information about the incident. The IRS said “an unknown substance” was discovered but gave no further details; local news reports suggested that a suspicious white powder may have been found in mail delivered to the facility.

Another crazy wingnut arrested for sending white powder to federal officials

Another wingnut taking the calls to violence from the repugican talking heads to heart ...

More anti-government crazies.

Drudge falsely suggests Obama has a drinking problem

Matt Drudge took a doctor's standard reference to the old "watch what you eat, don't smoke, only drink in moderation, and go to a dentist regularly" to mean that Obama has a drinking problem.

This is what FAUX does too. They use a benign fact and then lie to their readers about it.
It's what the Soviets used to do as well.
And it is what the NAZIS did (and still do).
Standard misinformation that the repugicans are so good at.
If their followers only knew the extent to which they were being lied to.

NBC sort of calls Drudge out for the lie, but fails to actually mention his name.

Obama's surprising new wingman

Obama's surprising new wingman

Despite a long-running feud with liberals, Sen. Joe Lieberman turns in a big favor for the White House.

Tricks to avoid feeling burned out

Tricks to avoid feeling burned out

Don't let your fast-paced lifestyle leave you exhausted and depressed.

Debate rages over whale's future

Debate rages over whale's future

SeaWorld's decision to keep the whale that killed trainer Dawn Brancheau fuels a "Free Tilly" movement.

Few drugs developed for super bacteria

Few drugs developed for super bacteria

Doctors are struggling to fight a lethal bacteria that is "resistant to virtually every antibiotic."

Desert Nesting Bald Eagles Set to Lose Protected Status

From Treehugger:

bald eagle blue sky photo
Image credit: Carl Chapman/Flickr

48 breeding pairs of bald eagle survive along the rivers of the otherwise hot and dry Sonoran Desert. Currently, this small group of eagles is listed on the federal list of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife but, if a new petition from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is approved, they would lose that protection

Bunning is losing his temper while forcing over a million Americans to lose benefits

Bunning loses it, on camera, with ABC's Jonathan Karl.


Do the repugicans even know we're in a recession and that people are really suffering? On behalf of his fellow repugican Senators, Bunning is screwing over the American people. He blocked movement on the Senate unemployment bill again today. Now, he's also acting out. ABC News documents his erratic, angry outburst on camera and off:
Senator Bunning was even more expressive before the cameras arrived, using a little sign language.

When Senate producer Z. Byron Wolf spotted Bunning exiting his office, Bunning said, “I’m not talking to anybody.” When Wolf asked him to stay and talk to our cameras, Bunning walked toward the elevator and shot the middle finger over his head.
Bunning has handed the Democrats a gift. Now, if the Senate Democrats had any sense, they would force Bunning to defend this filibuster all day and all night. He's making people suffer. Make him pay for it.

Bunning is clearly livid over the attention he's getting on the filibuster of the unemployment benefits. That means that Democrats should be jumping on this issue ten times harder than they already are. It's embarrassing Bunning, it's embarrassing repugicans. What would the repugicans do if they found an issue that so upset our Senators? They'd blow it up even bigger.

Lone senator blocks benefits for many

Repugican Jim Bunning of Kentucky stalls unemployment benefits for more than a million people.

Bunning hates America

Bunning hates Americans.
Bunning hates doctors who treat poor people.
Bunning loves "pooching" the country.
The Kentucky repugican is blocking a vote on the bill, which would also extend unemployment benefits and the COBRA subsidies that help laid-off workers keep their health insurance. This unusual turn of events (the bill in question has been in the works for some time and was considered a sure thing for passage) has brought to fruition a looming — but widely considered unlikely — pay cut that doctors have been screaming about for years.
From the - LA Times
  • rural satellite tv access - cut.
  • 400,000 unemployment benefits - cut.
  • cobra health insurance benefits - cut.
  • flood insurance - cut.
  • medicare reimbursement for doctors - cut 21.2%
  • small business loans - cut
Ask Bunning why he is hates America.
Ask his staff why they work for someone who hates America.

Washington, D.C.
Main: 202.224.4343
Fax: 202.228.1373

District 4 - Ft. Wright (Main State Office)
Main: 859-341-2602
Fax: 859.331.7445
Toll free: 1-800-283-8983

Amazing Scary Holes on Earth


Volcanic explosions expected in Chile quake's wake

Geologists will be watching for increased levels of volcanic activity caused by the powerful quake that struck Chile.

Volcanic explosions expected in Chile quake's wake

Giant dino-eating snake killed in action

This is life-sized reconstruction reveals what may have been a baby dinosaur\'s last glimpse, just before a giant snake devoured the hatchling. The window into the past was made possible by remains of an ancient serpent coiled around crushed dinosaur eggs. Credit: Sculpture by Tyler Keillor and original photography by Ximena Erickson; image modified by Bonnie Miljour.

This is life-sized reconstruction reveals what may have been a baby dinosaur's last glimpse, just before a giant snake devoured the hatchling. The window into the past was made possible by remains of an ancient serpent coiled around crushed dinosaur eggs. Credit: Sculpture by Tyler Keillor and original photography by Ximena Erickson; image modified by Bonnie Miljour.

A huge snake had just slithered into a sauropod's nesting ground, but a sudden landslide enveloped and killed all involved, as stunning fossils show.

Sniffing out criminals

From BBC-Science:
faces
Noses could be an even better method of identification than iris and fingerprint scanning, says a UK study.

Cop News

Good Question

Saudi's go liberal

A new law in Saudi Arabia allows women to argue minor cases at court and use notaries without bringing along a male guardian.

For Saudi Arabia, where women are legally about two notches below a camel, this is real progress.

Can you believe this bullshit

In an interoffice memo from headquarters, AT&T is asking its managers and employees to oppose net neutrality.

If corporations are people, how is this not murder?

They admit it

Apple has acknowledged that child laborers build its computers at some of the company's outsourced overseas factories.

Alice In Wonderland movie from 1903

The first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll's tale has recently been restored by the BFI National Archive from severely damaged materials. Made just 37 years after Lewis Carroll wrote his novel and eight years after the birth of cinema, the adaptation was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, and was based on Sir John Tenniel's original illustrations. In an act that was to echo more than 100 years later, Hepworth cast his wife as the Red Queen, and he himself appears as the Frog Footman. Even the Cheshire cat is played by a family pet.

With a running time of just 12 minutes (8 of which survive), Alice in Wonderland was the longest film produced in England at that time. Film archivists have been able to restore the film's original colours for the first time in over 100 years.

Court Rules that Nancy Benoit Estate Can Sue Larry Flynt

14th Amendment Over the First

The Supreme Court has decided that the family of a slain professional wrestling personality can continue its lawsuit against Hustler magazine, a case that tested privacy concerns and the competing right to publish "newsworthy" material.

The justices without comment Monday turned aside an appeal from the publishers of the men's magazine, which featured old nude photos of Nancy Benoit, who was killed nearly three years ago by her husband and fellow wrestling superstar Chris Benoit. The couple's young son also was slain in the family's Georgia home.

The order is a victory for the estate of Nancy Benoit, which is seeking damages from Hustler.

At issue was whether the constitutional right of privacy indirectly referenced in the 14th Amendment trumps the First Amendment protections of the media and publishers in this "right-of-publicity" dispute.

The original lawsuit was brought by Maureen Toffoloni, whose daughter, Nancy Benoit, had posed nude for a photographer more than two decades ago. Toffoloni claims that her daughter, who was also known by the wrestling moniker Woman, had asked immediately after the shoot to have the photos and video destroyed and believed that photographer Mark Samansky had done so.

He later sold stills from the video to Hustler, a men's magazine founded by Larry Flynt that publishes racy material. The photos were published in the March 2008 issue.

The murders had occurred the previous summer. At the center of the crimes was Chris Benoit, a Canadian-born athlete who worked for several professional wrestling circuits, including the popular World Wrestling Entertainment. In 2000, he married Nancy Sullivan, a Florida native who had become a well-known wrestling manager after her time in the ring. Their son, Daniel, was born earlier that year.

Police say the crimes occurred over a three-day period in June 2007 at the Atlanta-area home of the Benoits. Investigators concluded that Chris Benoit first bound his 43-year-old wife and strangled her. The 7-year-old boy was then drugged and strangled. The man then committed suicide by hanging himself with a weight machine. No formal motive was ever established.

CNN reported at the time that doctors found testosterone, painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs in the body of 40-year-old Chris Benoit, according to Georgia's chief medical examiner. Performance-enhancing anabolic steroids were later found in the home.

Weeks after the killings, a study of Chris Benoit's brain showed damage from "prior repetitive injury." His father, Michael Benoit, said on CNN's "Larry King Live" that a series of concussions from his high-flying moves in the ring were in part to blame.

Georgia has a law similar to many states' recognizing the right to privacy against "the appropriation of another's name and likeness ... without consent and for the financial gain of the appropriator." That would include "a private citizen, entertainer, or a public figure who is not a public official" like a legislator.

The state's high court ruled against Hustler magazine in June, finding that a "brief biography" of Nancy Benoit and her murder accompanying the nude photos did not represent a "newsworthy article."

"The photographs published by [Flynt] neither relate to the incident of public concern conceptually [the murders] nor correspond with the time period during which Benoit was rendered, against her will, the subject of public scrutiny," the state court wrote. "Were we to hold otherwise, [Flynt] would be free to publish any nude photograph of almost anyone without their permission, simply because the fact they were caught nude on camera strikes someone as 'newsworthy.' Surely that debases the very concept of a right to privacy."

The state justices said "crude though the concept may seem," Nancy Benoit's mother is now entitled to control such images "in order to maximize the economic benefit to be derived from her daughter's posthumous fame." Such power is known legally as the "right of publicity."

Flynt and the photographer, Samansky, later filed the appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court and had the support of several media organizations.

In a brief filed in support of Hustler, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said the Georgia ruling "makes no sense, as it goes well beyond the photographs that appear in magazines such as petitioner's to affect all news-gathering."

The group noted that other courts have long recognized a broadly read "newsworthiness" standard for commercial media like CNN and that such specific "dissection" of content-based stories and pictorials by judges would cripple editorial decision-making by all news outlets.

The case is LFP Publishing Group (dba Hustler Magazine) v. Maureen Toffoloni, as administrator and personal representative of the estate of Nancy E. Benoit (09-625).

Massive head of pharaoh unearthed

We posted a piece on this yesterday but now we have art.

Massive head of pharaoh unearthed

Archaeologists dig up an enormous red granite head of one of Egypt's most famous pharaohs.

Warren Buffett's rules to live by

Warren Buffett's rules to live by

The "Oracle of Omaha" became one of the world's richest people by following some basic principles.

Safety issues with bagged salads

Safety issues with bagged salads

Packaged lettuce may appear clean, but recent tests find bacterial problems with many brands.

Dad, daughter fall 13 floors in Chile quake

Dad, daughter fall 13 floors in Chile quake

One minute, Alberto and Fernanda Rozas were huddling in a doorway.

The next, they were in freefall.

Which colleges have the best-paid alums?

Which colleges have the best-paid alums?

Ten years after college, one school's graduates earn an average of $129,000 a year.

Runway throws a wrench in U.S. travel

Runway throws a wrench in U.S. travel

A change at one of the nation's largest airports will cause delays for millions around the country.

Bunning's filibuster forces furlough for federal employees working on construction projects

So, it's not just the unemployed who will suffer because Bunning blocked the legislation extending unemployment benefits. There was more in the bill. And, it's causing at least 2,000 federal employees are having their jobs put on hold:
ABC News' Lisa Stark reports: Jim Bunning (reptile-KY) didn't just stop extensions of unemployment and health insurance benefits with his "hold' on these funding measures last week, he also stopped an extension of the Highway Trust Fund for 30 days. That means the fund cannot be used to pay for any of its programs or its employees.

So, the Department of Transportation as of Monday morning, must furlough 2,000 federal workers. DOT says that number could climb if this stalemate over funding drags on. Employees affected include federal inspectors overseeing highway projects on federal lands. If the inspectors aren't there, the projects must shut down. DOT says that will affect 41 critical construction projects from Alaska to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“As American families are struggling in tough economic times, I am keenly disappointed that political games are putting a stop to important construction projects around the country,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “This means that construction workers will be sent home from job sites because federal inspectors must be furloughed.”
Repugicans got us into this economic crisis. And, the Senate repugican caucus is letting Jim Bunning extend it. The Democrats need to force Bunning and his colleagues to own this filibuster. They should have done that last week. But, maybe everyone has to see the impact first.

Deal Announced Resignation from Congress

Another repugican gone ...

Nathan Deal says he's resigning from Congress to concentrate on the Georgia governor's race.

Deal Announced Resignation from Congress

Somali Militants Order U.N. Food Agency to Leave

Somalia's main militant group has banned the United Nations food agency and ordered its aid workers to leave the impoverished country.

Full Story

Winter Storm Watch Issued For GA, Carolinas

From the "Here we go again" Department:

An area of snow is expected to expand in coverage and intensity across portions of the central mountains, the Upstate and southern North Carolina Piedmont by midday on Tuesday.

Floating Island With Living Walls Made From Old Clamshells and Coffee Cups

From Treehugger:

floating island studio noach patrick blanc image
All illustrations courtesy of Studio Noach

When we last met Michel Kreuger of Studio Noach, he was building a houseboat out of old coffee cupswith Architect Anne Holtrop and botanist Patrick Blanc.

Now the team has grander ambitions, and are proposing an entire floating island.

Inside the biggest tornado hunt in history

Where do twisters come from?
Ride shotgun with the storm chasers to find out

Inside the biggest tornado hunt in history

Science News

From BBC-Science:
Graphical representation of an ant smelling odours
Desert ants in Tunisia are the first animals known to navigate with stereo smell, using it to create an odour map of their surroundings.

Scientists develop a gene test which predicts how well chemotherapy will work in individual breast cancer patients.

A micro-ear could soon help scientists eavesdrop on tiny events just like microscopes make them visible.

The Band Concert

Mickey Mouse and Friends from 1935

Colon Cancer Awareness

Colon Cancer Awareness Today begins National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Almost 150,000 people were diagnosed with the disease last year, and about 50,000 died. Doctors say prevention is the key to survival.

Colon Cancer Awareness

Today is ...

Today is Monday, March 1, the 60th day of 2010.

There are 305 days left in the year.

Today In History March 1

March is: American Red Cross Month, Humorists Are Artists Month, International Ideas Month and International Mirth Month

Today is : Beer Day, Pig Day, Refired - Not Retired Day, Plan A Solo Vacation Day

It is the Peace Corps birthday today

Oh, and I almost forgot this week (March 1-7) is National Procrastination Week

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
London, England, United Kingdom
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Salerno, Campania, Italy
Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela
Heilbronn, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Eskisehir, Eskisehir, Turkey
Kiev, Kyyiv, Ukraine
Jakarta, Jakarta Raya, Indonesia

as well as Trinidad & Tobago, and the United States in such cities as Inverness, Seguin, Kennewick, Mechanicsburg, Queens, Dubuque, Pinellas Park and more.

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You thought you'd be dashing around for days, trying to ditch that electric bolt of energy that hit you yesterday.
Suddenly, as of this morning, you're feeling a little kinder and gentler.
Sure, your friends are startled -- no, amazed.
That's okay.
You're entitled to turn into a lover, not a fighter, every now and then.
Oh, and don't hesitate to stay up late and spoil someone without worrying about the residual guilt. Nice, huh?

Can do.